


Bulldogs vs the Devilbats

by lolcano



Category: Bella and the Bulldogs (TV), Eyeshield 21
Genre: American Football, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:13:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22682266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lolcano/pseuds/lolcano
Summary: Silverado High is getting a new Japanese exchange student! Bella and her friends are excited to show him around, but argue over the best way to do it. Meanwhile, Sena Kobayakawa takes a wrong turn while training in America and ends up at Silverado where he is mistaken for the exchange student. Hijinks ensue!
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> …I feel like the chances of these two fandoms overlapping is really very small, but nonetheless, here is the definitive cross-over fic between Eyeshield 21 and Bella and the Bulldogs that nobody asked for!
> 
> To be honest it's been a while since I've watched Bella and the Bulldogs, or read Eyeshield 21 for that matter, so hopefully it's not completely innacurate haha. 
> 
> Anyway it's all very silly so please don't take things too seriously haha.

The sun hovered high in the clear Texan sky, its heat undulating downwards in suffocating waves. Sena felt like he was being smothered in heat. His breathing was heavy and he was alone on the road, which was long, long and endless. It wavered off into the horizon like a ribbon. “The Death March”, Hiruma had called it. A 2000 mile-long trek across the American desert, with nothing but a truck low on gas and their own two feet to carry them. They had 52 days.

Just like their coach had told him, Sena kicked a stone in front of him as he ran. He was ahead of the rest of the team, as usual. They had been running for days. Sena was past the point of being tired. Life had become nothing but a ritual, a steady blur of road and sky. Put one leg in front of the other. The stone, rolling ahead of him until you overtake it. Kick it again. He was so absorbed in his task that he didn’t realize how far he had pulled away from the rest of the group. Nor did he notice the fork in the road ahead of him. Focused entirely on the rock ahead of him, he didn’t notice that the right lane was now an exit from the highway, and that above was a green road sign that said: Silverado. 20 miles.

*-*-*-*-*

Bella Dawson yawned and slumped down on her desk. She was exhausted! Her team had been practising extra hard the last few days in preparation for an upcoming match, and this morning’s practise had been especially tiring. And she still had an entire school day to go to! It was sometimes difficult balancing schoolwork, football, and her personal life, but Bella never regretted her choices for one instance. She loved football and being the school’s quarterback, and even if it did mean she got a little bit less sleep in the morning she would continue working hard! But since school still hadn’t quite started yet… Maybe it would be fine if she closed her eyes… Just for a second…

She had nearly drifted off to sleep when the class loudspeaker screeched on in a blaze of static and the brash voice of Ace McFumbles, school reporter, began tumbling at lightspeed throughout the school.

“GOOOOOOOD Morning Silverado West!” he proclaimed.

“Gwwaaaah!” replied Bella, as she violently jerked awake. The class was staring at her, and so she coughed and pretended to be listening to Ace’s report.

It seemed to Bella that she had only blinked before he had already finished the weather report, the sports report and the upcoming events report and was now hurtling into a new topic without hardly a breath.

“In other news, Silverado West is participating in an international student exchange program this year, and we’ve just received notification that we will be receiving a student from Japan! To welcome our new visitor, the principal has decided to appoint a student ambassador to help them adjust to life in America. This lucky student will take responsibility for showing the student around and teaching them about American culture. In return for their hard work, the ambassador will get repaid with FREE meals at the Lone Starcade for the entire month!”

Meanwhile, in another classroom, two students who had been previously sleeping at their desks suddenly perked up.

“Sawyer, did you hear that?” said one of the boys, turning and looking at his friend.

“Oh I heard that,” said the other. An agreement seemed to pass between their eyes like electricity.

“Troy! Sawyer! Pay attention!” said the teacher sharply.

“FREE MEALS” they mouthed silently to each other, “!!!!” then obediently turned their attention back to the announcements. But in the time it had took them to make this silent exchange, Ace McFumbles had already breezed through three other topics and was now coming to a close.

“Thank you all for listening! Once again, this has been Ace McFumble, Ace Reporter, reporting LIVE from Silverado West’s school office. Please enjoy the rest of your day.”

The speakers screeched one final time then went silent.

“Alright class!” announced Bella’s teacher, “Who’s ready to learn about parabolas!”

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

After a long and exciting lesson about parabolas, the bell finally rang and Bella headed to her locker. She was met along the way by her two best friends, Pepper Silverstein and Sophie De la Rosa.

“Oh my gosh Bella!” gushed Pepper, “Did you hear about the new Japanese exchange student?! I’m sooooooo excited to meet them! I’d love to be the ambassador! We can go shopping together, we can do each other’s hair and make-up….! It’ll be so much fun!”

“But Pepper,” Sophie interjected, “What if the exchange student is a guy?”

Pepper gasped. “A CUTE guy?! That’s even better!!”

“Sure, but you know, you aren’t necessarily going to be chosen…”

“That’s right,” came a voice from behind them.

The trio of girls turned around to see Troy and Sawyer standing confidently behind them in the hall.

“You’re not going to be chosen,” said Sawyer.

“Because WE’RE gonna be the ones chosen,” announced Troy.

“This Japanese exchange student is going to have the time of his life.”

“Because he’s gets to hang out with THE TROY.”

“And Sawyer,” Sawyer added.

“Yeah, and Sawyer.”

“You know only one of you can be the ambassador, right?” Bella asked them.

“Yeah, we know,” said Troy, “But a friend of Sawyers is a friend of mine.”

“And a friend of Troy’s is a friend of mine.”

“Anything we do, we do together!”

“We’re best friends!”

“And best friends stick together!”

Sophie and Pepper rolled their eyes.

“That’s great and all,” said Pepper, “And no offence, but what would _you_ do as the student ambassador? Invite them to your house to watch movies and eat pizza?”

Troy gasped. “How did you know!?”

“Seriously?” said Pepper, “Look, the student ambassador is not just an ambassador to this school, but to all of AMERICA. We have to express to them the _quintessence_ of American culture. Are you going to do that in _your basement_!?”

“What’s wrong with my basement?!” protested Troy, “And pizza is very American!”

“Pizza is Italian!” said Sophie.

“W-what?! Is my life a lie?!”

But unfortunately, before their discussion could progress any farther, the bell for class rang. The students had no choice but to hurry to class.

Later on, as Sophie and Pepper worked together on some math problems during class, Sophie could not help comment to Pepper, “I get that watching movies in Troy’s basement doesn’t exactly express the “quintessence of America” or whatever… But how exactly do _you_ plan on doing that?”

Pepper smiled knowingly. “I already told you Sophie. We’re going shopping! Because nothing expresses the spirit of America more than rampant consumerism.”

“Hm,” said Sophie, nodding thoughtfully. She couldn’t really argue with that.


	2. Chapter 2

It was lunchtime. Although most students would spend this hour period eating and talking to each other, the Silverado football team had no such luxuries. As an important game was coming up soon, they had to take every opportunity to practice, and thus after a quick lunch the teammates hurried to the locker room.

“So I was thinking about what to do with exchange student once we’re elected ambassadors,” Sawyer told Troy as they were walking to practise.

Sawyer continued “They need to experience the rural American life. So I was thinking we could take them in my tractor, and go horseback riding, help out in the stables…”

“Help out in the stables?” Troy protested, “Are you nuts? Who would voluntarily want to shovel _poop_!”

“Well, the thing is,” said Sawyer. “I was thinking about what Pepper said. And I think she’s right. As ambassadors to this country, we need to show them the _soul_ of America. And what is the soul of America if not the honest rugged labour of its people?”

“Are you kidding me?! There is NOTHING more American than watching epic adventure movies and playing video games all night. _Nobody_ exemplifies the soul of America better than THE TROY.”

“PUH-leeze!” said Sawyer, “A German Shepard could exemplify America better than you! And they’re not even American!”

“That’s a low blow Sawyer! I thought we were bros!”

“Well, so did I!” chocked back Sawyer. Angrily, with tears in their eyes, the two bros stormed off in different directions. Then they remembered they were both going to the same place, and reluctantly returned to the same hallway and stormed towards the locker room.

The team immediately noticed that the two were angry at each other. 

“Um…” Newt whispered to Bella, “Do you know what’s going on here?”

They watched as Troy and Sawyer argued about who should go through the door first, pushing and shoving to be the first out while the team waited and watched.

Bella sighed. “I think they’re arguing about who would be a better ambassador for the Japanese exchange student.”

“Oh…” said Newt, “Well, there’s no question about that…”

This caught Troy and Sawyers attention.

“Of course there’s no question about it!” said Troy, materializing suddenly at the diminutive boy’s side, and leaning on him chummily, “You’d have to be crazy to pass spending time with me, am I right?”

“Uh,” said Sawyer, “I think you mean, you’d be crazy if you didn’t recognize that the pillar of this country is the hard work of our farmers!”

Bella massaged her forehead. This was getting a bit out of control.

Newt laughed nervously and brushed away Troy’s arm. “Er well, actually…” he said uncertainly, “I was thinking maybe I…”

“What do you mean?!”

“Er well… It’s just…” He took a deep breath and began to speak rapidly. “My father has purchased first-class seats for an upcoming rendition of ‘Death of a Salesman’ on the local theatre scene, and I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to introduce the exchange student to American culture.”

“American Culture?!” cried Troy, “We were going to watch Die Hard! What’s more American than that?”

“And we were going to riding in a tractor!” cried Sawyer.

“Philistines” sniffed Newt, “I’m sorry but ‘Death of a Salesman’ is a poignant piece of American literature that expresses the advent of modernity and the death of the American Dream in an evocative and haunting play that is considered one of the greatest of the 20th century.”

Just then the coach came into the room.

“What are you all arguing about?!” he said sternly, “We’re here to play football! So get your butts out there into the field and get moving!”

“Yes coach,” they said, and hurried out onto the football field.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

When Sena finally looked up he realized that he was no longer on the highway. In fact, there were buildings around him on all sides, indicating that he was in some kind of town or city! His jaw dropped. Not again! he thought to himself. Hiruma was gonna be so mad at him! This was the second time he’d gotten lost this trip. Not entirely sure what else to do, he wandered at high speed through the town, trying to find a landmark he recognized. As he speeded across town, something caught his eye. It was a football field! He couldn’t help be drawn towards it. A football field was the same in America as it was in Japan. In a strange and unfamiliar world, at least this was familiar. It felt… almost as if he had come home. And so he paused at the end of the field, staring out at the familiar sight of the long green field. If he concentrated, he could feel the roar of the crowd around him and the weight of the equipment on his back….!

But even this reminiscing did not change the fact that he was lost, and this football field was not the one by Deimon High, no matter how similar it looked. Instead, next to the field was a building with big white English letters on it. Silverado…West…. he sounded out slowly, trying dimly to recall everything he had learned in English class. But Silverado West didn’t sound like any English words he knew. Then again, he didn’t know a lot of English words. Actually he was pretty bad at English.

“Hello?!” someone said just then in English.

Sena immediately jumped about 10 feet in the air and started bowing frantically.

“I’m sorry for trespassing!” he said, “So sorry! Please forgive me! I just noticed you had a football field here and….”

He trailed off uncertainly. There were a bunch of Americans standing around him. They looked to be about the same age as him, although he couldn’t really tell because they were foreigners. They were dressed in football uniforms and saying things in English he couldn’t understand.

“Blah blah blah blah blah,” someone said to him, or at least that’s what it sounded like.

“Um…. “ said Sena, trying to remember any of the English phrases he had learned in class. How did you introduce yourself again?

“Um….My name is Kobayakawa Sena!” he said in bad English.

“I mean… Sena Kobayakawa!”, suddenly remembering that in America, you said your family name last. “Sena Kobayakawa” he repeated to himself once more, as if to assure even himself that that was indeed his name.

“Sena Kobykawatchyamasay?” said the students.

“Sena Ko-ba-ya-ka-wa,” he said slowly.

“Kobeckyuckywa?” they repeated.

“Ko. Ba. Ya. Ka. Wa.”

“Kobakeywa?”

“…” said Sena, giving up in despair. “Sena. My name is Sena.”

“Sena! Blah blah blah blah Sena!!” Now the tumult of voices around him seemed to grow more excited, but the only thing he could understand was his name. Before he knew it, the girl had grabbed him by the arm and had begun to drag him towards the adjacent building, babbling excitedly. Some of the boys followed. Sena, unable to object, was forced to follow. He had no idea what was going on.

And that is how Sena found himself in an American classroom, listening to an American teacher lecture on what seemed to be American history, except he could not understand a word. What was going on? He felt dazed. He needed to get back to Hiruma and the rest of the team. But how? Suddenly he remembered his cellphone. He could just text them! Duh! Why hadn’t he thought of that earlier. He pulled out his phone and discretely fired off a text. Hopefully they would come and get him soon.

“Hey! BLAH BLAH BLAH.” Said the teacher, spotting him on his phone. The teacher continued saying something in English which he could not understand. He seemed to be angry that Sena was using his cellphone. Maybe it wasn’t allowed during class? Sena tried to explain that he wasn’t supposed to be here, but it was no use. Meekly, he turned over his cellphone to the teacher.

And so the class continued.


	3. Chapter 3

“Well,” said the principal, to the four desperate students in front of him, “First of all, unfortunately we haven’t had time to pick a student ambassador yet. He’s arrived a lot earlier than we expected.”

“Yes,” said Troy, “But if you _had_ to pick one, right now, it would be me, right?”

“No,” interrupted Sawyer, “Clearly it would be me!”

“Please,” said Newt, “It would be a travesty for the nation if you two were the only ones to represent it.”

“The exchange student is SO CUTE!” said Pepper, “You _need_ to pick me! I’d be a great ambassador!”

“And secondly,” the principal continued, “Why are you all in my office? Shouldn’t you be in class?”

“Well yes,” said Sawyer, “But this is important.”

“This is a flagrant act of disrespect. I’m afraid I’m going to have to send you all to the principal’s office.”

Everyone stared at him. He looked around.

“Oh right.”

“Regardless”, he decided at last, “I don’t think I’m prepared to choose an ambassador at this point in time. But how about this. Today, I want each of you to act as good ambassadors to the exchange student. Whoever does the best job, as reported by the student himself, will get to be the official ambassador.”

A blaze of fire immediately lit up in everybody’s eyes.

“You’re on!”

\--------------------------------

Sena sat rigidly in class, desperately trying to figure out what was going on. The teacher droned on at the front of the classroom in a language he could not understand. He looked around the classroom. Nobody seemed to give any indication that this was out of the ordinary. They just sat there and listened diligently to the teacher. Well, that is, for the one girl who was looking at him instead.

Wait a minute, why was that girl looking at him!? He blinked and looked again. Yep, that pretty girl was definitely looking at him! She noticed his gaze and immediately began fluttering her eyelashes alluringly. She mouthed something he couldn’t understand, then formed her thumbs into the shape of a heart. EEH??

His survival instincts kicking in, Sena stood up abruptly. His desk screeched with the sudden movement, causing everyone to stare and look at him. He froze.

“I don’t know how they do things in Japan,” the teacher frowned at him, “but if you have something to say, I’ll have to ask you to raise your hand, okay? Do you understand?”

Sena did not understand. All he understood was that someone was asking him a question. 

“Do you understand?” the teacher asked again, a little bit louder.

“Hai!” said Sena, hoping that by agreeing with whatever the teacher was saying everyone would stop looking at him. He bowed apologetically.

“Yes, hello. But that’s not what I was asking.”

“Sena’s just hungry, ma’am,” came Sawyer to his rescue, “It’s been a long day and I’m sure he’s still a bit jet-lagged. Right Sena?”

Without waiting for Sena to answer, he pulled out a large loaf of bread from his desk.

“Please, have this delicious loaf of bread made from wheat grown right here by the hard-working farmers of America.”

Sena didn’t understand any of that, but politely accepted the bread nonetheless. Was this some sort of bizarre American custom? And actually, he _was_ a little hungry. But before he could take a bite, the bread was knocked out of his hand by another student.

“Oh come on!” said Troy, “The exchange student doesn’t want some boring _bread_ , Sawyer. Here, have a hamburger! Doesn’t it look delicious? This is a true AMERICAN meal.”

He handed Sena a hamburger, seemingly out of nowhere.

Now completely and utterly confused, Sena took the hamburger.

“Troy! Sawyer!” barked the teacher, “Get back to your seats! And there’s to be no eating in my classroom.”

She confiscated the food and went back to the blackboard. “Now, we were in the middle of discussing the Great Gatsby and the American dream.”

“See Sena,” said Newt pointedly, “Now that’s what I’m talking about. Don’t you agree that this is much more sophisticated?”

Meanwhile, Pepper kept batting her eyelashes as Sena.

_Somebody please get me out of here!_ Sena thought. Unfortunately, as soon as class finished and school was over, Sena was immediately cornered by Troy, Sawyer, Pepper and Newt.

“You liked that hamburger didn’t you Sena? Well, there’s more where that came from!”

“Don’t listen to that philistine! I’ll show you what culture really means!”

“Sena, don’t pay attention to these silly boys. Why don’t we go get a cup of coffee together?”

“Don’t fall for her! Sena, you’d much rather go visit a farm, wouldn’t you?”

Battered beneath their assault of words, Sena backed into the corner. And yet they kept talking and talking until finally:

“So?!” they said in unison, “Who do you choose?”

“Eto….” he stumbled nervously. He had no idea what was going on, only that they seemed to be expecting him to say something. But he didn’t want to make anyone upset, so he simply smiled and activated his secret technique: extremely polite bowing.

Just then Bella walked by. Football practise had already begun, but three of the teams players were no where to be found. The coach had sent Bella to look for them.

And so she found them, standing around threatening the poor Japanese exchange student who trembled terrified before them.

“What are you doing?!” she scolded him, “Leave the poor kid alone. We need to get to football practise.”

“Yeah,” agreed Pepper, “Leave the poor kid alone!”

“You have cheerleading practise too, Pepper!” said Bella.

And so, disappointment written on their faces, the four students trudged to the gym to get ready.

“Are you alright?” said Bella to the little Japanese student. He looked traumatized.

“Sumimasen!” he said, and bowed up and down. But when he finally looked up, he noticed Bella’s football jersey.

“Amefuto?” he asked tentatively.

“What?” said Bella, not understanding. Then she noticing him pointing at her jersey and helmet. Actually, come to think of it, hadn’t he been wearing a football jersey too when they had found him on the field?

“Oh,” she said, “Do you like football? Do you want to go see the match?”

Sena nodded.

A few minutes later, Troy, Sawyer and Newt were very surprised to see Bella come out onto the field with the Japanese exchange student.

“Sorry boys,” she said, “But it looks like _I’m_ the new student ambassador!”

“What?!” howled Troy.

“After all,” said Bella, “There’s nothing more American than football!”


	4. Chapter 4

“Um,” said Coach Wilson, looking at the diminutive Japanese boy standing hopefully in line next to the rest of the team. “Are you sure about this?”

“Yeah, do they even know how to play football in Japan?” chimed in Troy.

“Why wouldn’t they?” said Bella defensively, “And who knows? Maybe that’s why he came to America.”

But Bella too had her doubts. The entire day this kid had been in class it looked as if he had been on the verge of bursting into tears. Not to mention he was small and thin and scrawny and it looked as if he could blow away on the wind any second now. But now that he was here on the football field, Bella could not help but notice a steely determination in his eye. He seemed more confident here then he had all day. It was as if he belonged here.

So she decided to stick up for him. “Look,” she said, “nobody thought I could play football either, but here I am. So we’ve got to at least give him a chance.”

“Well, alright.” said Coach Wilson.

They agreed to let him join their practise, and in a few minutes everyone was completely and utterly shocked. All they could do was stare in awe. This guy….

TOTALLY SUCKED!

He couldn’t catch a ball to save his life!

“W-well, why don’t we try one more time?” she said and threw the ball to Sena who awkwardly waited with his arms open where he thought the ball was coming down. This time at least, he judged the location more or less correctly. Unfortunately, the ball just hit him on the head.

“Bella, there’s no point,” Coach Wilson interjected, “He’s clearly not a wide receiver.”

“That’s right, not everyone in football has to be good at catching!” agreed Bella, “Alright, let’s move on to the next drill. So, what are we doing next?”

“Um…. “ said Coach Wilson, checking his clipboard, “Next up is… tackling drills.”

“Oh,” said Bella, her heart sinking. This was the worst possible outcome! A slight breeze could knock this kid down! There was absolutely no way he would be able to survive tackling drills!

Nonetheless, the practise had to go on. They all lined up, and of course, Sena just _had_ to end up facing Biff “The Mountain” Jones, the strongest and biggest linebacker at Silverado. Bella watched the two with horror. This is the worst possible timeline!

“Maybe someone else should go switch with…” said Coach Wilson, but as soon as Biff heard the word “go” he was off!

Bella closed her eyes. Sena was going to get obliterated!! And it was all her fault!! She waited to hear the sound of “SMACK! KERBLOOM!! AIEEEEE!” but it didn’t come. Instead, she heard a woosh as her long hair was blown back by an enormous force. She opened her eyes to see Biff fallen on the ground and Sena on the other side, unscathed.

“Wha - ?” she said. Everyone else was equally baffled.

“How – ?” Coach Wilson began but a sudden hysterical laughter interrupted him.

“YA-HA! Don’t underestimate the power of the Deimon Devilbats! You’re watching the fastest high school running back: the one and only Eyeshield 21!”

Everyone turned to see a strange man silhouetted in the evening light. He was tall and skinny with spiky bleached hair and a terrifying grin. Behind him was parked a large truck. Where had he come from?! He looked terrifying!

“Hey, that guy has a gun!” someone noted.

“Is this some kind of school shooting!?”

“We’re all going to dieeee!”

Everyone started to panic!

“Geez Hiruma-kun!” a brown-hair girl appeared from behind him and began to scold him, “Show some cultural sensitivity! You can’t bring a gun near a school in today’s political climate!”

“Alright alright, lay off it,” he said, tossing her the gun, “Now, you midget” he continued in Japanese, “Get over here! Do you know how much time we’ve wasted because of you?”

He also said some other words interspersed within those sentences! But as this is a family-friendly fanfic I will not repeat it.

“Very sorry! Please don’t mind him,” the girl attempted the placate the still-terrified team in passable English, “We are here to retrieve our friend.”

Indeed, Sena seemed very relieved to see them. He immediately sped over and started talking in fast-paced Japanese to another boy. 

“Hey, wait!” protested Bella. What was going on? They had just discovered the running back of the century, and now he was about to leave them for some rando strangers? But Sena was talking to another kid now and didn’t hear her.

So she turned back to the tall skinny guy. “Are you trying to kidnap our teammate?” she demanded.

Hiruma looked unimpressed. “ _Your_ teammate?” he said. He blew a large bubble of gum.

“Well yes! He might have just arrived this morning, but he’s still our Japanese exchange student!”

“I think there must have been a misunder – “ the other girl began, but Hiruma interrupted.

“HA! You want him so much? Then let’s play for it. Your team versus ours. The winner gets to keep the legendary Eyeshield 21!”

Coach Wilson just stared at him, trying to process what was happening.

“What’s going on?” said Sena in Japanese to his friend Monta.

“I have no idea,” said Monta. Neither of them understood English. 

Meanwhile the Bulldogs were debating what to do.

“If they win, can they really legally take Sena?” wondered Sawyer.

“I don’t think so,” said Troy, “But you know what? This guy really grinds my gears. Why don’t we show him what the Bulldogs are really made of!”

“Yeah!” cried the others.

And that’s how the epic match of Bulldogs vs. Devilbats began!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little bit more to go! The problem is, however, I know nothing about football! So I think this match is going to be hard to write.... O_O''


End file.
